And just like that, the University of Utah is on to Pac-12 play, after thoroughly handling Idaho State on Saturday, 31-0. So what can be taken from the game? More than most might actually think.
Here are the takeaways from the victory:
The defense proved a point regardless of opponent
It may have been an FCS opponent, but the Utah defense took care of business and turned in a special performance on Saturday, with its first shutout since the 2016 home opener against Southern Utah. Even as second and third-teamers saw playing time in the second half and with safety Julian Blackmon sitting out, Utah held Idaho State to 116 total yards for the day.
A week after Northern Illinois threw for 235 yards—much of which came on one blown coverage by a backup—the secondary locked it down and held the Bengals to 80 yards in the air, including one interception by freshman Jatravis Broughton in the second quarter. Idaho State was overmatched in the running game as well, picking up only 36 yards on 25 carries as a team. The Idaho State offense averaged only 2.5 yards per play on the afternoon and picked up just nine first downs.
Overshadowed in the great performance is the Utes picking up only 2 sacks and forcing one turnover on the day, but the bottom line is that the defense shut down the Idaho State offense like expected. Now the defense turns its sights on a talented USC squad in Los Angeles on Friday night as Utah begins its defense of the Pac-12 South Division title.
The Utes began to show offensive balance
The Utah offense produced 543 yards of total offense on Saturday against Idaho State, and what is most impressive about this number is the balance across the board. The rushing attack was on display against BYU and NIU but the Utes ended the game with 320 yards through the air, a season high. Tyler Huntley threw for 282 of these yards while completing 15 of his 19 passes. The Ute offense has been very efficient up to this point of the season and will need to continue to have a balanced attack as they start Pac-12 play. With one of the best running backs in the nation, it is likely that teams will be forced to sell out to stop the run. This will put the pressure on Tyler Huntley and the pass game. However, through the first three games against lesser competition, Huntley has done everything that has been asked. It is also of equal importance that the receiving corps stays consistent. The performance of Bryan Thompson on Saturday was refreshing and Ute fans need to knock on wood that he can stay healthy this year. If this happens, this Utah attack will remain balanced and will be very difficult to stop.
They’re undefeated only showing the basics
It's three weeks into the season, and Utah is 3-0 and ranked in the top 10. Facing a fairly "ho hum" non-conference schedule consisting of two G5 teams and an FCS opponent, pretty much everybody expected the Utes to go into conference play undefeated, and they've done exactly that. It was also expected that the Utes would try to win those three games while playing fairly vanilla and not showing much of their playbook. Safe to say that they accomplished that goal, after three convincing wins where the defense largely dominated and the offense relied heavily on letting Zack Moss run all over opposing defenses.
In Saturday's victory, the Utes jumped out to an early 24-0 lead behind Moss’s running, before he was pulled halfway through the second quarter. Along with Moss, Tyler Huntley shone despite the passing game not showing anything all that exotic, racking up nearly 300 yards passing while only playing through the first offensive series in the third quarter before calling it a day.
After USC's disappointing loss to BYU, the Trojans are suddenly looking pretty vulnerable—especially their defense—so it will be interesting to see what Utah's offensive strategy will be next Friday night.
Don’t sound the backup QB alarm
Chaos chaos chaos, what’s happening?... Okay, now stop and breathe. For the second game in a row, Drew Lisk has been the first quarterback off the bench before Jason Shelley. However, the fact remains that Shelley is absolutely the no. two option. With so much riding on this season, the Utes need to make sure there’s as much depth as possible and that’s exactly what they were able to do the last two weeks. Lisk may not have had jaw-dropping totals, outside of being 6/6, but the experience is crucial and Shelley had proven enough that he doesn’t need a ton of reps in mop-up time.
Okay now, breathe everyone.
